


Your Name On My Lips

by mshakarios



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Banter, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Height Differences, Light Angst, Parenthood, Wedding Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 06:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18231251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mshakarios/pseuds/mshakarios
Summary: Companionship and family are unfamiliar concepts, but as she looks at him, warm fire in her eyes, he realizes they're concepts he wouldn't mind becoming better acquainted with.





	Your Name On My Lips

**Author's Note:**

> This started off with me just wanting to write some post-established-friendship but pre-relationship banter between Thane and Irikah, and turned into...a much longer thing. It's also filled with my own headcanons; most notably, Krios being Irikah's last name and Thane taking her name when they get married. (I don't care about it not being compliant with Thane's backstory comic. I really dislike that comic, I ignore it almost completely and if anything it makes me want to stick to my own headcanons more out of sheer spite lmao.)
> 
> Also, her appearance (blue scales, orange freckles, and lack of Nonsensical Lizard Tits) and their height difference (she's 6'0" and he's 5'5") are beloved headcanons of mine. Basically, if you see something in this fic and it goes against established canon, it's entirely on purpose. 
> 
> Side note this is the first time I've posted a fic to AO3 in the F/M category. Part of me hates to break my streak of entirely M/M and F/F, but I think these two are worth it. (And for the record, neither of them are straight. Bisexual power couple.)

Even before he speaks, his deep, gentle voice cutting through the late-night silence of the laboratory, she is already aware of his presence in the doorway.

“It’s the middle of the night, Doctor. Far too late to be up doing work.”

Irikah snorts at his words, her gaze not leaving the cell samples on the counter before her.

“But not too late for you to come sneaking into my lab?”

“There’s never a wrong time for protective intervention. You’re the first friend I’ve ever had; I wouldn’t be a very good friend to you if I let you die from lack of sleep.” Thane eyes the steaming cup of highly caffeinated tea sitting on a nearby table, and the several empty cups that surround it. “Or from an overdose of caffeine.”

“What can I say? The work needs to be done, and I guess I’m the one who has to do it.” She shrugs with a little grin as she turns in her chair, looking down at her datapad to record a quick note before turning back to the sample. “We’re saving lives here; if working myself to death is the price I have to pay to get this new treatment available to the public faster, I’d say it’s worth it.”

Thane sighs; stubborn, always so stubborn, but he wouldn’t change her for the world. She is his first friend, his best friend, a remarkable woman with both admirable strengths and self-destructive flaws. She is determined and selfless, but also stubborn and self-sacrificing, and he has learned by this point in their friendship that it is near-impossible to convince her to care for her own needs when there is more work to be done. And, as she often tells him, there is _always_ more work to be done. He nods in defeat.

“Well, if you’re set in your decision to work yourself to death, may I at least keep you company while you do it?”

“I mean, I assumed you didn’t just come here to stand in my doorway the whole night.”

Despite her sarcastic words, he knows her well enough to recognize the fondness and invitation in her tone. She enjoys his company, just as he enjoys hers. He enters the lab, coming to stand at one of the other counters. A respectful, nonthreatening distance from her, he thinks to himself, and far enough from the samples to not require the same gloves and lab coat that she wears. Irikah is still engrossed in her work, and Thane can’t help but smile fondly as he watches her. She looks up to meet his gaze, noticing the smile on his lips and narrowing her orange eyes at him in a playful show of mock suspicion.

“What? Spot something I missed?” 

“No, I just...enjoy watching you work. Seeing you in your element is interesting.”

“Yeah, it must be. I’ve never seen you smile before.” She grins. “It’s a good look for you. I wouldn’t mind seeing it more often.”

She returns to her work as he looks down at the floor in embarrassment. Eventually she falls asleep in her seat, slumped over onto the counter beside her work. Thane cleans up silently around her, returning the cell samples to storage and saving her work on the datapad. He loses himself in memories for the few remaining hours of the night and slips out in the morning, shortly before her coworkers arrive at the lab. When they rouse her awake she can’t help but smile knowingly at the fresh, still-steaming cup of tea placed carefully by her on the clean counter. 

\--------------------------------

“My last name?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s embarrassing not to know by this point. I just never got a chance to ask, I mean, you just introduced yourself as Thane, and we’ve constantly been talking about other things and it never came up, and...y’know, I feel like the longer I know you, the worse it gets for me not to know.”

Thane watches her patiently as she speaks, punctuating her thought with an awkward grimace. He meets her gaze as he speaks calmly. 

“There’s a good reason it has never come up. I don’t have one.”

“What?”

“When I began my training, all connections to my family were severed. I do not carry their name.”

Irikah looks at him with indignant disbelief. 

“But you did, once.”

“Yes; when I was small. It has been years, and I feel no connection to it now. An assassin cannot afford family ties.”

“They just took it away from you? A six-year-old child, taken from his parents and stripped of his family name?” She is scowling now, that characteristic anger at all the galaxy’s injustices already beginning to bubble up in the tone of her voice.

“It was a small price to pay.” His tone remains even as he responds to her anger on his behalf. “You know what the hanar have given us, and what an honor it is to be in their service. You serve them yourself, _Doctor_ Krios, in case you hadn’t realized whose diseases you work to cure every day in your lab.”

“That’s different! I _chose_ this! I went to school for years to make it happen!”

“I went through years of training as well. I fail to see your point.”

“My point is that _you_ were a _child_! I figured out what I wanted to do with my life and I made the decision, as an adult who could choose things for myself! You were just a child, and they forced you into it.”

“I could have left at any time, just as you can.” He looks at her with confusion. “I have never been forced to do anything. My training was a gift, and I am grateful for it.”

“You’ve never known anything else, and that’s exactly the same as forcing you. They took you away, and they severed all connections to the life you could have had, and they raised you to do terrible things without ever giving you a chance to do something different.” Irikah scowls and shakes her head. “You know, I used to think the Compact was just some natural thing; it’s what all our people seem to think. They saved us, we help them; I always thought it seemed more than fair. But this...this is dangerously close to slavery. There’s no justifying it.” Her gaze softens as she looks at him. “My heart hurts for you.”

“I can’t understand why you would feel sympathy for me.”

“And that’s why I do. Because you don’t understand what was taken away from you. Your family, your identity, your _choice_...”

Thane wants to argue more, wants to tell her how insulted he is by her words, how certain he is that he would have been allowed to leave if he had so desired. But the sadness in her eyes melts his resolve, and he slips one arm around her in an unfamiliar gesture of comfort that he is still not used to offering or receiving. She grumbles, but leans into his embrace, and after a moment he speaks again softly.

“I have never minded not having a family, or a family name.”

“It seems like a lonely way to live.”

“Perhaps.”

She heaves a frustrated sigh as she buries her face in his shoulder.

“I wish I could teach you to care about yourself.”

“Says the woman who works until dawn and whose daily caffeine consumption would send the average drell into a coma.”

“Follow my words, not my example, Thane. I think whatever part of my brain controls self-preservation is probably all shriveled up and dying from lack of use. But it might not be too late for you.” 

“I wonder if I’ll ever stop being surprised by your investment in my safety and well-being.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m a doctor; it’s my job.” But those vivid eyes look up to meet his dark ones, and the tenderness in them makes it clear that her care for him goes far beyond any of her duties as a medical professional. It sends his head spinning, and he steadies himself and his racing thoughts by leaning further into the steadying calm of her embrace.

\--------------------------------

“You’re back!” 

The words are half-yelled with surprise, her face lighting up as she sees him in the doorway. She is alone in the lab, but from the way she looks at him, Thane gets the sense that it would not have mattered if her entire research team had been present. He gives her one of the rare smiles that she loves.

“It was an easier job than I had expected.” 

He starts to say something else, but Irikah flings herself across the room, closing the distance between them as she pulls his small frame into a joyful embrace, and Thane forgets for a moment how to form words as he finds himself suddenly in her arms. His feet leave the floor as she spins him around enthusiastically, and he can’t help the small, uneasy laugh that escapes him, an occurrence even more rare than his smiles. 

Irikah laughs too as she hugs him, setting him back down on the floor but still holding him tightly to her chest. Thane returns her embrace, holding her close as they laugh and smile together with the breathless excitement of being reunited after several weeks apart. After another long moment she pulls back, grinning wordlessly as she looks down at him. 

They both seem to realize in that moment how close they are, her arms around him and his around her and her tall form stooped slightly to bring their faces close together. In a moment of unfiltered affection, Thane brings one hand up to her face in a gesture he has thought about for so long, his thumb brushing tenderly over the orange freckles that stand out against her blue scales. He touches her face with a gentleness bordering on reverence, saying without words all the things he has found himself wanting to tell her for so long. And then before either of them can stop to think, she is leaning in, her lips meeting his with a barely contained enthusiasm that makes him wonder if she has been thinking about this as long as he has. She kisses him deeply under the stark lights of the laboratory, and when they finally separate after several long, blissful moments she whispers against his lips, the soft adoration in her voice making his chest ache.

“I missed you.”

Then she stoops to kiss him again, and he stretches up onto his tiptoes to meet her partway as their lips meet once more. She tastes of the bitter herbs of the tea she always drinks, and he gives himself over fully to the taste of tea on her lips, the comforting weight of her arms around him, the press of her lithe, strong body against his own. She feels like home, he realizes, like no one and nothing ever has before. All of his anxieties seem tiny and far away as she kisses him. He leans in and surrenders himself in full, feeling with a lovestruck certainty that he has started a new life in her arms. 

\--------------------------------

“You’re...free?”

“I’m no longer in their service. I suppose...yes, you could say that. I’m free.” He tells her breathlessly, and Irikah is certain she has never seen her lover more excited or more terrified in the entire time she has known him. She puts a steadying hand on his shoulder.

“You asked for this? And they just agreed?”

“I had to convince them. They said that it was a mistake, that I should stay in the life that was meant for me.” Thane’s lips twitch into an unreadable expression. “But I insisted. I told them that I wanted to be more. More than what they trained me to be.”

“Thane, are you alright? You look...scared.” She pulls him in close, and he buries his face in the flat, glossy scales of her chest as he murmurs to her in a low voice.

“I am, Siha. I’m scared, and excited. I have been a weapon at my masters’ disposal for many years. I grew so used to it; it was a simple fact of my life. Now I’ve left them, and for the first time, I don’t know what I am.” He is silent for a moment as her hand comes up to tenderly stroke the back of his head. “But whatever I am, I am yours.”

“Thane…”

“As long as you’ll have me, I want to be by your side. You’ve changed me, woken me up in ways I still haven’t entirely figured out.” He looks up at her, dark eyes anxious but certain. “I love you.”

“And I love you. I’m proud of you; you’re a good man. This probably isn’t going to be easy, you know, leaving behind everything you’ve ever known.” She smiles down at him, and that familiar teasing lilt enters her voice. “Are you really sure I’m worth it?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything. Irikah...my Siha...I want a life with you. I want to spend every moment with you, make years of memories by your side. I’ve never wanted anything more.”

Irikah grins.

“I think there’s a question hiding somewhere in that thought.”

“Marry me. Please. I want nothing more than to be your husband.”

She kisses him, slow and gentle, and for a moment all his fear and uncertainty melts away. When she pulls away, she is still smiling.

“Yes.” She rests her forehead against his, still leaning down to lessen their height difference. “Of course, gods, _yes_.”

\--------------------------------

“I like the sound of it. You know, in that silly possessive way. Like you’re _mine_.”

Thane smiles at his bride. They both still wear the richly colored robes of their wedding ceremony as they enjoy a quiet moment to themselves, the sounds of celebration carrying over from the next room. 

“I _am_ yours, Siha,” He kisses her, “And I enjoy having a way to show it. It does feel slightly strange, after not having a family name for all these years. But I love it...and I love you.”

“I love you too…and hey, remember, it’s not just the name.” Irikah gestures back at the adjoining room, filled with the friends and members of her family who had come to celebrate their marriage. “It’s them. They’ll love you, just like I do. You have a family.”

He doesn’t respond, only brings her hand to his lips and gives it a tender kiss, dark eyes glowing with joy as he looks up at her with wordless adoration for a long moment. Finally, he speaks.

“Should we get back to the festivities? I’m sure they’re missing us.”

“Whatever you want, _Sere Krios_.”

Thane feels a rush of happiness at the name. His new extended family is merely a bonus; Irikah is his family, his wife, and the thought makes him burn with satisfaction. He has her name, and she has his heart, and no matter what the future brings, this is enough for him. He takes her hand and lets her guide him back to their celebration. 

\--------------------------------

He is so small, so tiny and innocent, and Thane feels familiar anxiety well up in his chest as he looks at their child’s curious face. Dark eyes like his own look back at him from a face of teal blue scales somewhere between his green and Irikah’s blue. A little boy; their son, hers and his. Irikah holds him in her arms, responding to his wordless cooing sounds with murmured words of love. Thane wonders if she is as nervous as he is. The infant continues to look at him, and he feels the pressing need to say something. 

“Hello, Kolyat. We’ve been waiting for you. I’m...glad you’re here.” No, that sounds bad, and he internally kicks himself. Kolyat is still looking at him; can babies judge people, he wonders to himself? Is he off to a terrible start as a father already?

“Sorry about your father, little one,” Irikah coos to the tiny boy, her face glowing with motherly love. “I think he’s a little awestruck right now.” She strokes his little face gently, and his tiny blue fists come up to grab at his mother’s hand, his attention leaving Thane.

“I’m...not good at talking to children.”

“Yeah, I know. Are you kidding? I saw you when my little cousins were following you around the last time we visited the family. You talk to children like they’re tiny adults. It’s ridiculous.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t endearing.” She grins at him. “You’ll be a good father, Thane. Just let me do most of the talking.”

Thane returns her smile, then looks down at the urgently cooing baby in her arms, reaching his tiny arms up at his father. 

“Can I hold him again?”

Irikah leans in, carefully transferring Kolyat into his father’s arms. Thane gives the baby boy an unsure little smile. The reaction is instantaneous, dark little eyes widening as Kolyat makes a gleeful squealing noise. It isn’t enough to soothe the fear that lies tangled up in knots in Thane’s stomach, but it is enough to make him smile wider, leaning down to press a kiss to the darker scales on his son’s small forehead. Irikah cuddles closer, pulling Thane into an embrace as the galaxy rearranges for both of them, its center shifting to the tiny blanket-wrapped bundle looking up at his mother and father with excited curiosity. They are a family, no matter what tomorrow brings. And that is enough.


End file.
